Forty-Four Times
by kiboojosama
Summary: A ficlet of Meliodas's and Elizabeth's first time together.


Author's Note: I seriously have no idea where my brain was going with this. Is this the product of frustration? As I want these two together and it hasn't happened yet?

Spoilers for those of you that haven't read at least 200 chapters of the manga, by the way.

* * *

Elizabeth lay sprawled across him, warm, languid and pleasantly vibrating from aftershocks of pleasure. So this was what it was like, having a lover? Actually making love? No wonder people were a little obsessed with it. Now that she had experienced for herself what it was like, there was absolutely no way that she would ever let him put distance between them again. No matter what the reason.

Actually, that was a good question, one that she had been wondering for a while. With him effectively pinned under her, it seemed the opportune moment to ask. "Why did you wait?"

Meliodas was so relaxed that he didn't even open his eyes, or twitch a muscle, just hummed back: "Wait for what?"

"This. Why did you wait?"

"Elizabeth," he drawled, lips twitching up, "I've been touching you for months."

"And I let you for months," she responded, growing a little exasperated. Why was he dodging the question? "And it should have been obvious for months that I wanted us to properly be lovers. So why did you wait?"

"It's only right, y'know, for me to at least wait until you're _legal_."

She wanted to punch him in the ribs for that, that reminder that he was so much older than she was, but she smelled evasion. The way he refused to look at her while speaking hinted that there was something that he was hiding.

A thought struck her. No. That couldn't possibly be it, could it? "Did you think I just couldn't say no to you?"

A line of tension developed all through his chest and legs, as if he had just went taut.

Incredulous, she propped herself up completely onto one elbow and demanded, "Did you honestly think that I wouldn't fall in love with you again?"

The silence was almost deadly.

For the first time in her life, Elizabeth felt like shaking sense into someone. This man was strong, confident, borderline cocky, and yet for all his strengths she was apparently his one weakness. Sitting up, she arranged her legs so that she straddled his waist, and had no intention of moving any further than that until she had him straightened out. This was not a doubt that she wanted to take root in his head. "Forty-six times."

Meliodas's eyes slowly opened so that he was looking up at her.

Seeing that, she continued unprompted, "I calculated it. If we fell in love 3,000 years ago as people have told me, and I lived an average lifespan of 65 years, that means that at most I reincarnated forty-six times. During all of those reincarnations, did I ever fail to recognize you? Fall back in love with you all over again?"

Perhaps it was a trick of the light but it looked like there were tears standing in his eyes. His voice was throaty and much huskier than usual as he responded, "It was forty-four."

Despite the fact she had run the calculations herself, Elizabeth's mouth went dry. Had it really been that many times? Had he really fallen in love with all forty-four versions of her? Was his love and loyalty so strong that it truly didn't matter to him that she might be a little different each time? "Forty-four, then," she managed levelly. "Did I?"

This time he sat up too, only to bury his face into her shoulder as he hugged her hard to him, skin against skin. There was nothing sexual about it, the gesture going deeper into true intimacy. "No. Not once."

She returned the embrace, running a hand through that tameless hair of his, leaning her head against his. "Forty-four times wasn't enough to prove it to you?"

There was a gust of a laugh against her skin. "Elizabeth. To be honest, I never understood why you fell for me in the first place. I'm a demon—"

"Only in body," she argued.

"—and lecherous—"

"Only with me."

"—and sometimes I lose my temper and my power goes out of control and I destroy things."

"That's what I'm here for, to fix it. Besides, you only lose your temper when I'm hurt."

Meliodas leaned back a little to look her in the eye. There was an enigmatic smile on his face that she couldn't quite decipher. "But no matter what I do, you always forgive me. I really, truly don't understand it."

To her, it was perfectly obvious. "Isn't that what love is?"

"Is that it?" he murmured. "So you think that no matter what happens, no matter what I do, you'll always come back to me?"

"Of course," Elizabeth responded patiently. Seriously, forty-four times hadn't proven that? "It's bad enough I leave you alone for years on end, until I can find you again. I'm not about to leave you alone forever."

He flipped their positions smoothly, making her gasp even as her back hit the sheets. Leaning over her, he had that look in his eye, the one that a man does when he looks at a woman he wants desperately. "This time, even if you're wrinkly and old and have gray hair, try to stay for at least a hundred years, will you?"

That was not something she'd thought about until he'd brought it up, but now that he'd said that…. "But surely you don't want to make love to an old woman!"

Meliodas laughed, that low, lecherous laugh that sent a tingle right up her spine. "Wanna bet?"

Elizabeth really was set to argue the point—although she wasn't at all sure she wanted to win the argument—when he took her mouth and kissed her deeply. He seemed intent to start things all over again, which was fine with her, as she didn't think she'd get tired of making love with him. Ever. Even another three thousand years didn't seem like a long enough time to her.

She'd leave the worry of trying to be sexy with grey hair and wrinkles for the time when she actually was a hundred years old.


End file.
